Updated/Correction. The first and last paragraphs were updated to clear up confusion. The Journal Printing Co. building.Photo byCatfilmnoir aka Carol Baier, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Today, I give you a special holiday edition of burning questions, my smart-aleck answers and then the real deal.
Why do I get a bad feeling that you ll be starting the grill with this page any minute now?
(Note: This column first published on Memorial Day 2010.)
Question: Is birth control for bears possible?
My answer: It must be. I can t think of another explanation for that bear I saw last weekend entering a truck stop bathroom, six neatly stacked quarters in paw.
Real answer: Well, anything s possible, but the question is whether it s practical, according to Joffrey Brooks, a wildlife biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Most of the wildlife research on birth control has been done with deer, and researchers found that administering contraceptive materials or devices is possible but lacks practicality over any wide scale.